Before Angry Crowd, N.J. Health Services Official Says Vineland Center Will Close

VINELAND, N.J. — State Department of Human Services Commissioner Jennifer Velez defended the proposed closing of the Vineland Developmental Center on Tuesday, testifying before a hostile crowd at a public hearing on the issue.
Velez had to stop her testimony a few times as people in the crowd booed her, made catcalls and sometimes shouted "liar."

Opinion: Don't Warehouse People with Disabilities

Guest column in The Record of Bergen County, N.J., by Lowell Arye, executive director of the Alliance for the Betterment of Citizens with Disabilities in Hamilton.


The urging of some to halt plans to close Vineland Developmental Center would move New Jersey in the opposite direction of 30 years of public policy toward community living for people with developmental disabilities.
In his budget, Governor Christie boldly announced the closure of a state developmental center over the next two years. New Jersey has not closed a developmental center since 1998, when it shut down North Princeton. It is far behind the national trend of deinstitutionalization.

N.J. Assemblywoman Seeks Impact Study Prior to Closing Developmental Center

TRENTON, N.J. -- Gov. Chris Christie should halt any plans to close the Vineland Developmental Center in Cumberland County until a new legislative panel has studied the impact on its disabled residents, the chairwoman of the Assembly Human Services Committee announced today.
In a letter to Human Services Commissioner Jennifer Velez who oversees state institutions, Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen) questioned the administration's recent transfer of 59 Vineland residents. Two-thirds of them were sent to one of the six other institutions serving people with developmental disabilities while the remaining residents moved into community housing.